This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Scroll compressors have a housing that contains a scroll compression mechanism with two intermeshed scroll components, a motor for driving the scroll compression mechanism, an intake for receiving refrigerant to be compressed, and a discharge from the housing for expelling pressurized, processed refrigerant. Certain scroll compressor designs may be hermetically or semi-hermetically sealed with a high-side pressure design that includes both a high-side pressure region and a low-side pressure region inside the housing. A high-pressure region or high-side corresponds to areas of the scroll compressor exposed to high pressure and temperature conditions corresponding to discharge gas conditions (e.g., after refrigerant is processed in the scroll compression mechanism). A low-pressure region or low-side corresponds to areas of the scroll compressor having lower pressures prior to the refrigerant being fully processed in the scroll compression mechanism.
In hermetically or semi-hermetically sealed motor compressors, the refrigerant gas, which enters the housing as vapor at the inlet on the low-side, passes into and is processed within the compression mechanism, where it forms a compressed, pressurized refrigerant gas that passes through the high-side discharge. In such scroll compressors, a muffler plate or separator partition plate isolates the high-pressure side (discharge refrigerant that is at high temperatures and high pressures) from the low-pressure side (inlet or suction refrigerant that is at low temperatures and low pressures). When compressing the refrigerant (e.g., gas), work is required, thus generating heat. The processed discharge gas thus has significantly higher temperatures and pressures than the pre-processed suction refrigerant.
The heat may undesirably be transmitted from the high-pressure discharge gas to the low-pressure side, thus increasing suction gas temperatures and undesirably reducing the suction gas density. By heating the refrigerant gas on the low-pressure suction or inlet side, the refrigerant gas increases its volume, thus a mass flow rate of refrigerant gas entering the compression mechanism is lower than a mass flow rate of gas that would otherwise enter the compression mechanism if the refrigerant gas was at a lower temperature. This refrigerant heating thus causes a smaller amount of inlet refrigerant gas to be introduced into the compression mechanism, causing a loss of efficiency of the refrigerant cycle. Accordingly, increasing refrigerant gas temperature and thus reducing its density adversely affects the compressor cooling capacity and power consumption. If heat transfer from a high-pressure discharge side to the low-pressure suction/inlet side is reduced, this can improve compressor performance and discharge line temperatures. It would be desirable to have improved high-strength, robust partition or muffler plates that advantageously reduce heat transfer from a high-pressure side to a low-pressure side to improve compressor performance and efficiency.